An Unlikely Pairing
by LordSesshomaru0703
Summary: Karkat has always done his best to avoid Nepeta. She always was flushed for him, and he knew it. However, one day, in order to make it up to her, he has to come over to her hive. When Nepeta gets hurt, will Karkat be the one to comfort her?


Chapter One

* * *

arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

AC: :33 hello karkitty! *ac's tail swishes happily*

CG: LOOK YOU AUTISTIC CAT. I DON'T WANT TO WASTE ANY OF MY VALUABLE TIME. SO WHAT DO YOU WANT.

AC: :33 silly karkitty! I'm not autistic! so... what's up? :33

CG: WELL IF I LOOK UP DIRECTLY, I SUPPOSE THE SKY, DUH. WHAT KIND OF AN IDIOTIC DOUCHE DO YOU TAKE ME FOR.

AC: :33 h33 h33! you're funny karkitty. *ac laughs*

CG: YOU'RE UNBELIEVEABLY STUPID NEPETA.

AC: :33 you don't mean it! :33 *ac pinches your ch33ks*

CG: STOP THAT! EVERY TIME YOU START TROLLING ME YOU ANNOY ME WITH YOUR TIME-CONSUMING STUPIDITY. LEAVE ME ALONE!

CG: …

CG: I ALREADY MESSED UP THIS CONVERSATION, DIDN'T I.

arsenicCatnip [AC] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

Nepeta Leijon sighed as she shut her laptop and captchalouged it. Why must Karkat always be so difficult? She closed her eyes as she leaned back on her paw-shaped pillows and thought of the conversation that had taken place just a few moments ago. Not much generally bothered the young cat girl, but something about her and Karkat's chats kind of made her sad whenever he cursed and pushed her away with text- which was usually the only way he agreed to talk to her.

Opening her eyes again, she sat up and made her way out of her hive. Passing her walls she saw all the various drawings of her ships that she promoted. There were relationships with moirails, kismesises and auspices. This made her smile a bit. She had worked so very hard on all of these! She ran out to the front of her hive and smiled at the nice weather.

Looking on the ground, she happened upon many scattered pieces of Equius's technology that he was most likely using to create another of his robots. When he had come over to her hive a few days ago, he had brought a huge suitcase full of machinery. Since then, various pieces that he was probably looking for right now were scattered about. She picked up a very complex-looking one (they were probably all like that) and tapped it with a slightly sharpened fingernail. It made a slight _tink_ sound as she did so. Bored, she threw it aside and continued on her walk.

_Ding!_

Nepeta glanced at her sylladex, where the noise had come from. Obviously, it had come from her laptop. Who had messaged her on Trollian...? She removed her laptop from the sylladex, being careful not to eject anything. Oh Gog. It was Karkitty.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]

CG: KARKAT IS FRICKING SORRY, OKAY? GEEZ KARKAT THINKS YOU OVERREACT TO EVERYTHING WETHER GOOD OR NOT.

AC: :33 *ac perks up* karkitty you apawlogized! :33

CG: KARKAT THINKS THIS IS STUPID. KARKAT THINKS HE SHOULD FRICKING STOP TALKING LIKE THIS, BECAUSE IT'S COMPLETELY STUPID, AND A WASTE OF HIS TIME.

AC: :33 *ac hugs karkitty happurrly* thank you thank you thank you! i furgive you!

CG: WOW. THAT WAS FAIRLY SIMPLE... I THOUGHT YOU WOULD ASK ME FOR SOMETHING OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY ABYSMAL LIKE THAT. AND WILL YOU QUIT IT WITH THE CAT PUNS?

AC: :33 h33 h33. well you cooould come ofur and rolepurray! :33

CG: I KNEW IT.

AC: :33 purrleeeaaassseee?

CG: AND WHAT IS UP WITH THAT STUPID CAT FACE STARTER? SERIOUSLY EVERY SENTENCE!

AC: :33 someone's changing the subjeeecccttt.

CG: DAMMIT. THE CAT-OBSESSED GIRL CAUGHT ME... NOT.

AC: ;33 i'll clean up so you can come ofur, okaaayyy?

CG: WAIT.

arsenicCatnip [AC] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

CG: DAMN.

Nepeta nearly jumped for joy! Karkat Vantas might be coming over to her hive to roleplay! How could this day possibly get any better? She carefully maneuvered her way through the machinery, running to get a bag to put all of it in.

* * *

Karkat Vantas sat at his desk, repeatedly pounding his head against his keyboard. How could he been so stupid as to mention the idea to her? Now he had to go over to this cat-obsessive girl's hive! UGH! Stupid stupid stupid! He didn't care that keyboard pieces were flying about from his tantrum, he just wanted to get out of this huge mess.

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair, a bunch of candy-red blood trickling slowly down his forehead. He had gotten the crap all over his keys too. With his black sleeve, he wiped the blood aggressively from his brow. He guessed that he probably couldn't get out of this one. He would have to go to Nepeta Leijon's hive. For some reason, he would probably feel guilty if he didn't.

Karkat stood up from his seat, grunting at his blood soaked sleeve. Gross. With that, he ripped off his shirt, tossing it aside. Walking over to his closet, he examined the selection he had. Not much to see- after all, a troll's closet generally doesn't consist of much other than one style of shirt, and one style of pants. He ripped a black turtleneck off of the hanger and slipped it over his head. Well, time to go ruin his day.

Karkat grabbed his brush as he walked out the room, and out the door, slamming it behind him. Quickly, he tore through his tussled black hair with it and shoved it in his pocket. It was a good thing he knew how to get to Nepeta's hive. At least. Karkat Vantas would _not _be getting lost in the woods and get eaten by a bear today!

* * *

Karkat walked up to the hive of the cat girl, pondering wether or not he should knock on the door. He could do it, he could just go home. He could just go home and forget about this _whole_ phenomenon like it had never even happened! But... Deep down somewhere, Karkat knew that wasn't right.

So, quietly, ever so quietly, Karkat rapped on the door. He was expecting a very happy Nepeta to jump out and pounce greet him, or something... But when that didn't happen, he knocked louder. Nothing.

This was very unusual... Karkat thought that she would come out to greet him after that... Surely anyone would have been able to hear a knock that loud, right? Maybe she was still cleaning elsewhere or something. But... Still. Nepeta claimed that she had the senses of a cat. For Gog's sake, she thought she _was_ a cat. So she would most definitely have heard that.

Then, he heard something. It sounded at first like a kitten yowling quietly. But then Karkat recognized what it was. It was crying. _Nepeta's_ crying. Karkat didn't like seeing trolls hurt, so he decided that he would have to get in on his own. Karkat fiddled with the knob until, finally, it came open. He ran inside.

There, bent over her hands, was a crying Nepeta. Emerald green liquid oozed from her hands and spilled on the floor. By her knee was a sharp-looking machine part that Karkat quickly identified as Equius'. He must have left it lying around, and in an attempt to clean, Nepeta most likely had tried to pick it up, only to accidentally cut herself on the sharp metal.

"Nepeta? Uh... You okay?", he asked. He walked over and crouched by her. Grabbing her wrist gently, he examined it. The metal had cut pretty deep into her grey skin, and more and more green kept oozing out of it. "Here, let me see it, okay?"

Nepeta sniffed a bit, and allowed him to look at her hand. It hurt badly... But Karkat's hands were surprisingly gentle.

"Let's go get your hands cleaned up, okay?" Karkat said gently. He had actually learned some first aid from Kanaya at some point, though he didn't remember when. The cat girl nodded quietly, slowly and shakily getting to her feet. Karkat still held fast to her wrist and made his way with her to the bathroom.

When in the bathroom, Karkat twisted the water on. Cold water gently poured onto Nepeta's hands, relieving a bit of the pain.

"That'll at least numb it." Karkat rinsed her hands gently, using his thumb to rub the dried blood off. "Damn Equius... Leaving his stupid robot crap all over the place. Something like this was just waiting to happen." He grabbed a washcloth of the side of the sink, and used that to get the rest of it off. Below, the draining sink water was stained green.

After what Karkat said, Nepeta felt she should defend her moirail.

"H-he's not that bad... I-I'm sure he didn't mean to... Um... Hurt me... Or anything...", Nepeta stuttered. She rarely stuttered, or cried, for that matter.

Karkat shook his head.

"You shouldn't hang around with him Nepeta... He's a royal jackass... Plus, this crap he leaves around is dangerous." Karkat had never really talked like this with Nepeta. In fact, he had never really talked to her at all. Normally Nepeta would have been really happy, just as she had earlier. But now she was in too much pain to even _think_ about that.

After that, Nepeta had remained silent. She continued to let Karkat wash the blood on her hands. She kept her head down as she stood in front of the sink, while Karkat stood to the side, focused on his work.

After they had stopped bleeding, Karkat cranked the water to a stop, and looked at the troll's palms. The metal had cut through about three layers of skin, and around the opening was green bruising.

"You're lucky I came... Just in time, too. You probably have a huge mess on your floor, though. I guess no roleplaying for you today." He grabbed a piece of her torn glove and wrapped it around it. "You should probably see Kanaya at some point to make sure it does-

"Candy red."

Karkat stopped talking to see if he heard her right.

"What...?" he asked with a confused expression.

"Candy red. That's the color of your blood, Karkitty. It's red. I figured it out." Nepeta looked up at him and smiled, using her undamaged hand to poke his wound from earlier gently. Karkat remembered immediately now. When he had slammed his head on his keyboard countless times... He had... Forgotten... To put a stupid bandage on it!

Karkat swore at himself under his breath. Then he just groaned.

"Yeah. That's what color it is. You figured it out, you autistic cat. Great job. Whoo." He clapped his hands sarcastically. "Yeah." Nepeta just giggled in return. But Karkat for some reason, was happy she had returned to her normal, bubbly self.


End file.
